Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Lose More Sheen As Russia-Ukraine Talks Make Little Progress — Is Crypto Back To Behaving Like A Risky Asset?

Major coins traded in the red on Monday evening as the global cryptocurrency market cap fell 3.7% to $1.7 trillion at press time, with the risk appetite getting whacked by limited advancement in talks between Russia and Ukraine.

See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Why It Matters: The third round of Russia-Ukraine talks held in Belarus saw little progress on the issue of evacuating civilians. A fourth meeting between the two countries will take place very soon, according to Russia’s negotiator Leonid Slutsky, reported Reuters. 

The second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by spot volumes, Coinbase, said Monday it had blocked 25,000 addresses related to Russian individuals or entities believed to be “engaging in illicit activity.”

“Once we identified these addresses, we shared them with the government to further support sanctions enforcement,” said Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase in a blog post. 

Bitcoin has gone back to behaving like a risky asset. It remains vulnerable to selling pressures if equities can’t stay above the lows made at the end of February, according to Edward Moya, a senior analyst at OANDA.

“Bitcoin seems poised to have persistent volatility going forward and it will struggle to break out of its recent $37,000 to $45,000 trading range until risk appetite can look beyond the Russia-Ukraine crisis,” wrote Moya, in a note seen by Benzinga.

On-chain analysis firm Glassnode’s co-founders Jan & Yann tweeted that as Bitcoin moves towards its support between the $34,000 and $36,000 level more of it is being purchased with the “sideline stablecoin supply.”

This, according to it, has served as a “strong bottom indicator” in the past. 

Meanwhile, on the Ethereum front, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is “still making lower highs, but also a higher low,” according to Michaël van de Poppe, an Amsterdam-based cryptocurrency trader.

Van de Poppe tweeted that the question remains if Ethereum “sweeps the lows for liquidity” before it reverses or whether it takes out the highs and continues to rise. He said he’s betting on the former.

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